Mr Euson developed this lesson in order to help Year 10 to write a comparative essay about two poems that they had studied.​​​ Click on the link to view:Stealing by Carol Ann Duffy

RS

Miss Summers has produced an outstanding iPad lesson and excellent resources on an introduction to understanding racism click on the links to view:Introduction to Racism, Lesson plan

Maths

Mrs Christianson: The first part of the lesson was corrections on simultaneous equations and then a DIRT extension task on a PowerPoint of harder simultaneous equations. All in purple pen. The second part was an A3 revision sheet with questions all over it, levels given, and written. Students chose where to start, could answer on the sheet or in books. If they got stuck they had to use their books, ask a friend and finally ask me. The plenary was a tricky level 8 question. This was a second set so it was challenging for them.

MFL

Mrs Stanisstreet: Here are the first few slides that I used with my Year 10 who I was observed with. The first one involves them matching up the headlines to the pictures for new innovations in technology.

The extension was that they could try to work out the whole headline. Then then had to say how often they did certain activities relating to technology such as downloading music. The third slide was cut up into strips. Each student had their own name and they had to move around the classroom to find which student in the class had each of the other questions by asking the questions and receiving a ‘sí’ or ‘no’ response. The inspector really praised the quality of the spoken Spanish that the students were producing in the lesson, their written work and their progress over time by use of the PPP and departmental coding system in their books. Click on the link to view: Gadgets and comparisons

Brainfood

Article of the week

Planning to Get Behaviour Right: Research Plus Experience

There is nothing like a discussion about behaviour and discipline, either in the staff room or in the classroom, to get people talking with passion, intensity and all too often from totally different perspectives.

“The area of discipline surfaces so often in all work in schools that we gave it its own category in the analysis of the questionnaire. Staffs are obsessed with it.”

(Canavan, 2003, p. 180)

Staff’s “obsession” with discipline, identified by Canavan (2003) above, is possibly borne out of a reality in which the level of discipline, in the school or class room, has arguably the biggest impact on the quality of our daily lives, working environment and well-being. It is often cited as a reason why teachers, young and old, decide to quit the profession. Students may well feel the same about the impact of behaviour on their working day.

Do you have a “Keep ‘Em In” or a “Kick ‘Em Out” type of approach to School Discipline?

What’s important is that we clearly think through our belief system about school discipline and looked at some research about what actually works. Over time this research can be contextualised alongside what works in the classroom for “me and my students”. As Jason Bangbala once said, “You need to avoid a guts to gob reaction” and this blog is an attempt to move us more towards a “brains to action”response.

What the Research Says

A number of the graphics and the information below have been used with the kind permission of Geoff Petty and are taken from his book, Evidence Based Teaching (2009), which I read when it was first published. Itis well worth reading. His book uses the research of Robert Marzano et al (2003) “Classroom Management that Works”.

Marzano identified four key groups of factors that had a positive impact on behaviour in the classroom and reduced the number of disruptions. The table below summarises these:

Rules & Procedures

Without rules communities can descend into chaos and anarchy with the poorest and weakest in a community (society) becoming the most damaged and disadvantaged.

Coming up with school or class room rules that try to take account of every eventuality can become self-defeating, as no-one can remember all the rules. A parent recently reminded me we use to have a couple of pages of rules in students’ planners which no-one read. For daily operating we need a few agreed and understood rules, possibly between five to seven, that can be used to give direction to a way of living and working together. Our challenge is not simply to impose rules but rather to bring each person to a level of self-control and self-discipline that allows them to be a full, supportive and enriching member of the class and wider community.

It’s interesting to note the basis of laws across Europe and other parts of the World find their origin in the Ten Commandments (these were changed to just two in the New Testament expressed in positive language).The Ten Commandments are a call to a relationship and signpost a direction of travel. They cannot hope to nor did they intend to cover every instance of human behaviour but are a set of guiding principles. For example, there isn’t a commandment banning pulling your brother’s or sister’s hair or giving them a quick dig in the ribs if they annoy you. However, the spirit that goes beyond the letter of the law requires us to treat our brothers and sisters with respect and love and this is the key to their understanding. This thinking is useful for us in the classroom as we set rules and as we shall see later the development of “right” relationships is key to managing behaviour.

Classroom Procedures are usually developed by a teacher over time, however, explicitly thinking about procedures, for the start and end of lessons or during transitions from one activity to another, can help keep a classroom calm and ordered. Whether it is handing out books, equipment or putting things away, developing standard routines that students quickly become familiar with increases the efficient use of time and reduces the mini-moments of disorder that may occur in lessons.

Teacher-Student Relationships

“Don’t smile until Christmas”, is the advice often given to newly qualified teachers. However, the flip side of this advice, “Start smiling before Christmas”, is not so often given to more experienced colleagues. Both have a seed of truth and usefulness in building student-teacher relationships. For newly qualified teachers the generalisation and stereotype is that there tends to be too much co-operation and a lack of assertiveness within the classroom, sometimes confusing a friendly approach with wanting to be a friend. This is the essence of the advice to “Not smile until Christmas” in an attempt to increase dominance in the classroom. However, it is important to note that, as a generalisation, somewhere between six to ten years into teaching a number of teachers lose their sense of care and co-operation in class tending towards a “blitzkrieg” approach that is too dominant and damages relationships.

The graphic below gives some depth to the “fair but firm” discipline often writtenabout in letters of application and talked about in interviews. The two dimensions of dominance and co-operation are held in tension so that a caring but assertive approach is used within the classroom.There must be a balance between a teacher’s control of a class and the co-operation needed to form positive relationships between teachers and students.

Dominance (assertiveness) comes from a strong sense of purpose in pursuing clear goals for learning and for class management; clear leadership with a tendency to guide and control and a willingness to discipline unapologetically. For example, there is a big difference between:

The first may too often sound like a bit of a plea, however, the second is a clear instruction with the inbuilt assumption that it will be followed, hence the “thank you”. It doesn’t need to be said in an angry manner just a clear and assertive voice. This assertiveness must be held in tension with co-operation otherwise it can become aggressive or even in extreme cases draconian. Increasing dominance in the classroom can be achieved by:

Agreeing and then sticking to a simple set of rules and expectations,

Being clear about learning & behavioural goals and

Consistently and assertively using a simple range of proportionate and escalating responses to poor behaviour.

Whilst it can be very hard work, take care not to pass issues or students on too early in any disciplinary process – when you “pass on” you are essentially saying to the student, “I can’t cope but this person can!” Follow up and follow through as much as possible as the benefits in the medium to long term are massive.

Co-operation has a great concern for the needs and opinions of students; teachers are helpful & friendly and teachers use a series of strategies to avoid strife and seek consensus. This also needs to be held in tension with an assertive approach otherwise it can lead to an acceptance of poor standards, too much appeasement and a lack of direction in managing behaviour. If you are in danger of becoming “oppositional” towards students in the class you can increase co-operation by:

Catching students doing things right and praising,

Going the extra mile to support a student with their work,

Taking part in extra-curricular activities and

Taking a general and genuine, but not intrusive, interest in students’ lives and interests. What is the talent of each of the students in your class/form – what do they excel at?

As an aside, it is interesting to note that Hattie’s work shows strong teacher-student relationships as the 11th most important factor in raising achievement. Students do better academically when the relationships in class are right.

Disciplinary Interventions

This is essentially about using “carrots and sticks”. What Marzano (2003) found in his meta-analysis was that appropriate use of sanctions and rewards had a greater impact than using neither or one but not the other. Just using rewards had a bigger impact than just using sanction but this was not as powerful as using both.

The use of sanctions is important to understand – it is the consistency with which they are applied and the inevitability that it will happen much more than the severity that has impact. In fact in Marzano’s work he writes about “mild punishments”. It is important to be proportionate in your response and then follow up and follow through.

There are numerous intervention strategies that can be used in the classroom to get students back on track.

The use of rewards is more important than sanctions, in improving behaviour, with verbal praise, points, stickers, merits, positive notes in books/planners, phone calls home etc. being all fairly standard responses in many classrooms. The addition of certificates, badges, golden time, gifts, vouchers and reward trips often occur at a departmental, phase, faculty or whole school level.

Mental Set

Marzano (2003) identifies the biggest impact on reducing disruptive incidents as the right “Mental Set” which he defines as a conscious control over your thoughts and feelings when you respond to a disruption alongside strategies to develop your awareness of what is going on in your classroom and why – what Marzano refers to as “withitness”.

Experienced teachers and gained wisdom would perhaps give teachers the advice to “Nip it in the bud” and “Don’t take it personally”

“Withitness” is about being present and being a presence. Developing the peripheral vision needed to successfully manage a group of thirty students is an important part of behaviour management. Scanning the classroom whilst teaching and intervening immediately, using the minimal possible intervention to resolve the issue, limits the opportunity for things to spiral out of control.

Moving about the classroom, around the perimeter whenever possible, allows you to have a physical presence in a room whilst ensuring all students remain in view. Take care when working with an individual student that you don’t end up with your back to half the class.

Emotional Objectivity is a real challenge particularly when you are in the “eye of the storm” and a student is behaving badly or being outright offensive. Keeping calm, remaining assertive and managing the situation is crucial.

You’d be surprised how many students in the class think you are doing a great job and handling a difficult situation well – remember to thank the class for their co-operation during the difficult incident if their behaviour warrants it. The misbehaviour isn’t personal.

Putting this all together in a picture is a challenge (see above) but doing it in the classroom is even more challenging. Some people will find some aspects of behaviour management come very naturally and easily to them and other parts are more challenging. It is worth taking an aspect that you wish to improve: focus on it for half a term or a term, practice it and hone it until it becomes second nature.

If you are interested in how, with the support of @TeacherToolkit, this was converted into a planner for use by teachers have a look at the

Good Practice:

Excellent feedback following a visit from the SSAT (Schools’ Network)

Last Thursday we were visited by the Director & CEO of the SSAT (The Schools’ Network) and their Programme Coordinator for Subjects & Teaching and Learning.

We are applying to become a TEEP Ambassador School which will provide us with a quality mark of innovation and improvement in teaching and learning.

TEEP stands for Teacher Effectiveness Enhancement Programme and further information on TEEP at Upton can be found here.

The visit involved observing lessons, asking pupils what they were learning, how they were learning and why it was important. There was then an opportunity to meet with both staff and pupils in a more informal setting.

We were delighted to receive the wonderful feedback below from the visit and see how highly regarded our school is on a national scale.

“……..it was abundantly clear that you are doing so much with TEEP and that your student programmes are having a significant impact on the whole school and extended community. I have requested that SSAT teams contact you regarding Student Leadership and potentially a case study, which could lead to an opportunity to showcase at a national event.”

“I was hugely impressed by the TEEP practice I saw in the brief observations, both in classroom climate and in the obvious planning to nurture the effective learning behaviours in your students.”

“Thanks again, it was an absolute pleasure to immerse ourselves, however briefly, in your wonderful school.”

Just some of the fantastic work being produced at Upton over the last week:

Geography home work on weather completed by Liam Johnson

Becky McGrath has produced this excellent video on her recent progress in Spanish lessons, click on the link below to view:

Katie Spall has produced this excellent piece of work on her favourite artist:

Mr Eunson: I would like to share this excellent trailer produced for a film version of Roald Dahl’s short story, The Landlady. Currently they are studying short stories in English. The Year 8 students who produced this work are Josh Ellis, Ben Collins, Will Simpson, Georgia Griffiths and Joe Horn. The class completed a peer assessment for each trailer. We used Apple TV to view the end products. Click on the link below to view:

Article of the week:

New book and iTunes U course on App Smashing

I’ve been a big fan of Greg Kulowiec’s idea of App Smashing for some time. This is why when I was asked to run some sessions at a conference in Istanbul recently I chose to run a 3 hour session on App Smashing.

The key thing to remember with App Smashing is that there is no limit to what you can do. The only limiting factor is your creativity. The opportunities to collaborate and work with multiple apps on your iPad now are huge.

As many edtech enthusiasts and evangelists will tell you (and rightly so), the purpose of technology in the classroom is to serve learning.

App Smashing is one of those activities with technology that can be lots and lots of fun but can, when being particularly creative, allow the learning to focus too much on the technology rather than the learning activity.

Appsmashing gives us a great opportunity to provide our young people with an avenue to really squeeze the learning opportunities out of their mobile devices. The caveat is:

…don’t focus huge amounts of time on creating brilliant things at the expense of progress.

Recommended Read

1) What does awesome look like: A Teacher Activity Book for iPads in the Classroom

We had 15 educators from around the world contribute to Volume I of What Does Awesome Look Like? Visit our website, EdTechTeacher.org/awesome and enter your email address to download your free copy for viewing on any computer or mobile device.

Good Practice at Upton:

Progress at Upton

There is extensive evidence that using modern technology helps them make greater progress:

Our Year 8 in 2014 without iPads achieved an average level of 5b, whereas our Year 8 with iPads in 2015 achieved an average level of 6c. Both Year groups started year 7 at the same point, with an average level of 4a.

They enjoy learning through technology, and so are more motivated and find it easier to concentrate, collaborate and communicate. It has had a positive impact on attendance.

See the iPad bumper edition posted on 19/1/15

iPad launch to Year 6 Parents

We launched the iPad scheme to Year 6 parents on Wednesday 18th March 2015. Please have a look at the video produced by the student E-learning Facilitators (ELFs) and click on the PDF version of the PowerPoint used below.

Brain food

Scotland

Tablets allow for freedom and flexible learning, study finds. Students become more creative and independent when given their own tablet computer, according to a study on the use of mobile technology in Edinburgh schools. The research appears to bolster the case for moving away from fixed computers and dedicated information communications technology rooms towards providing all students with a tablet or mini-laptop for use throughout school and at home, known as “1:1 mobile learning”.

Students showed more enthusiasm for school after mobile digital devices were introduced – mostly in 2012-13 – in two primaries and two secondaries in Edinburgh, according to University of Hull researchers Kevin Burden and Trevor Male. Students had already been more likely to use mobile technology than school ICT even before it was sanctioned: more students regularly used mobile devices such as smartphones in school (35 per cent) than school computers (25 per cent). But their use of technology in school “increased significantly” during the 1:1 projects at Sciennes and Broomhouse primary schools and Forrester and Gracemount high schools, the research states.The allocation of personal tablets or mini-laptops “alleviates many of the problems and complaints which teachers have traditionally made about using fixed technologies in the standard IT laboratory”, Dr Burden and Dr Male write.

“There is evidence that teachers are shifting their practices in ways which might prove to be very significant,” the report states. “Personal access to the internet enables teachers to set more authentic and realistic tasks for students,” it adds.

Student autonomy was “an immediate benefit”, particularly at Sciennes Primary, where children were given considerable freedom to personalise iPads. Parents were also enthusiastic, with many buying tablets for their children on the strength of the study. One Sciennes parent said: “It has definitely helped him to be more independent; his creative writing is now that of a child way beyond his years as he is not held back by the slowness of pencil and paper.” But problems were identified: teachers found it difficult to support simultaneous use of different types of devices, so the report recommends that schools choose only one. Questions were also raised about the ability of Glow, the digital network for Scottish schools, to support the technology. And there is growing concern among parents – although less so among teachers – about internet addiction and overuse of games. Edinburgh already has about 6,500 iPads in its schools to share among the city’s 44,000 students. The council has promised to match-fund any money that secondary schools put towards providing entire year groups with iPads over the next two years. “We are quite convinced that it’s the way forward,” said senior education manager Karen Prophet. “What’s been fascinating is that this technology has not been stolen or damaged, because young people value it.”Ken Cunningham, general secretary of School Leaders Scotland said that, given that tablets were expensive and required a reliable broadband connection, it would be a long time before each student in Scotland could be equipped with one. However, he said the fact that “not everybody can get (one)” was not an excuse to delay their introduction: it was simply a case of being “sensible” in targeting the initiative. He suggested that tablets might be used to help narrow the attainment gap in Scotland, with struggling students given them first. (See the full report by clicking on the link below).

The USA

iPad changes the way teachers teach and students learn. Students, educators, and institutions are using iPad for countless educational purposes and finding both anticipated and surprising benefits. Examples in this document highlight the following areas across K–12 and higher education: • Improvements in academic performance • Increases in engagement and motivation • Added instructional flexibility and resource efficiency • Integrated focus on content quality and design (See the full report by clicking on the link below)

England

Study Finds Benefits in Use of iPad as an Educational Tool. The study looks at the use of iPads at the Longfield Academy, where a large scale 1 to 1 iPad program was implemented last year. A brief overview of this groundbreaking study is provided below.

It is not just at Upton: Article of the week

The Positive Impact of Launching a 1-1 iPad Project – The Data from Hove Park School Park

In April 2013 Hove Park School launched a 1-1 iPad deployment for 1600 students. What has been the impact on progress, behaviour and attitudes to learning?

Student Achievement

Evidence based on the tracking of achievement data shows that the introduction of Hove Park’s 1-1 iPad Learning Transformation Project has made a positive contribution to the school’s work to eliminate the gap between the progress of economically disadvantaged students and their peers. Since the introduction of iPads 1-1 the progress of students eligible for pupil premium funding has accelerated compared to the progress of the cohort as a whole.

Student Behaviour

Analysis of behaviour data at Hove Park has shown that the use of iPads has resulted in a significant decrease in sanctions across the school for the first two terms working 1-1 compared with the same period in 2012. Most tellingly, the sanctions received by the pupil premium cohort of economically disadvantaged students has decreased at a faster rate over the same period.

Hove Park used pupil premium funding to provide eligible students with iPads and a suite of educational apps. These early results show that working 1-1 with iPads has had a clear and positive impact on these students who are now engaging with learning better and achieving at a faster rate.

Student Perceptions Of Learning

In order to gauge the initial feedback from students, the school asked 500 students at Hove Park to evaluate the quality of different aspects of their work before the introduction of iPads and again after 10 weeks of working with an iPad in lessons. In measuring the proportion grading the quality of work good or outstanding in a 4-point response scale, the results were extremely encouraging.

Enjoyment of lessons
Before students had an iPad only 4.7% of students rated the enjoyment of lessons as excellent. Now students have an iPad 47.8% of students rate their lesson enjoyment as excellent. 86.9% of students rate the enjoyment of lessons as good or excellent compared to 31% of students before they had an iPad.

Learning in Groups
Before students were using iPads 61.2% rated learning in groups as good or excellent, compared to 79.6% now.

Support from Peers
There were 58.1% of students who rated the support from friends as good or excellent before they had an iPad, compared to 67.3% now they are working with an iPad.

Sharing Work With Other Students
Before students used iPads 23.9% were sharing work with other students on a regular basis. This has increased to 62.7% of students sharing their work on a regular basis with other students.

It is clear that the use of iPads in lessons very quickly has a positive influence on students’ collaboration and sharing of their work.

Working Independently
66.6% of students rated independent learning in lessons as good or better before using an iPad. This rose to 79.6% of students rating it as good or excellent with the introduction of iPads at school.

Time in Lessons to Explore and Develop Your Ideas
This saw a shift from only 15.8% of students saying they were given time in lessons on a regular basis to 94% of students saying they now are given time to explore and research their own ideas on a regular basis in lessons.

The range of tools in the iPad and the speed with which they can be accessed during a sequence of learning activities means that teachers can plan to hand more responsibility to students for aspects of their learning during lessons.

Completion of Homework
64.5% of students rated the completion of homework as good or better before they used an iPad, compared to 74.7% of students since having an iPad.

Feedback from Teachers
Feedback from teachers was rated as good or excellent by 52.9% of students before they had an iPad. Since students have an iPad, 66.9% of students now rate the feedback from teachers a good or better.

In the first ten weeks, teachers experimented with a range of vehicles for setting and assessing homework. These increases in student responses mark the first steps in the journey to dramatically improve and personalise feedback to students in order to accelerate their achievement.

Sharing Work With Parents
Only 15% of students were sharing their work on a regular basis with parents. Since the introduction of iPads 55.6% of students are now sharing their work with parents on a regular basis.

One of the key aims of the Hove Park iPad learning Transformation Project is to bring parents into closer contact with their children’s learning. This early gain in the frequency of sharing work at home gives us a good platform to build on as we begin to share our lesson materials on iTunes U in the coming months.

Article of the week: We are not the only school doing it!!

Marking – Effective, Developmental & Time-Saving

Put the students in the driving seat, after all, we love to recognise their hard work so why shouldn’t this become a reciprocal arrangement? Hence the ‘Purple Pen of Power’ A simple, yet effective way to engage and empower students to secure progress. I’m not saying this is unique in our school, because it’s not, however, offering frequent opportunities for all pupils to ‘have their say’ in making progress is proving highly successful.

The strategy of dedicated improvement and reflection time (DiRT) is a much talked about and covered topic which is proven to be highly effective in encouraging students to play a more active role in your marking of their work and the work of their peers. In essence, it creates an element of accountability for all parties involved in the process. In fact, the purple pen is so loved it’s created quite a stir, as enterprising students have taken it upon themselves to create ‘purple pen holders’ and sell them to teachers, with great success I might add – who would’ve thought DiRT could generate such a buzz!?

I’ve been inspired by the insightful work of David Didau ‘The Learning Spy’ and this is where I came across this very useful feedback flowchart, I recommend reading his blog on this topic. if you haven’t done so already:

Developmental and effective = Progress

What does marking look like when it’s effective and secures progress for all learners and of course, how do we achieve the marking nirvana that is; Demonstrating progress over time? or to rephrase the question: how often do you set aside time in your lesson for DiRT and what is the ratio between the time you have taken to mark a students work in comparison to the time they have taken to formulate a response?

Time, workload and having a life!

Talking to staff informally, nationally (usually on twitter), locally (usually at various teachmeets) and of course in my own school context, I’m sure it will come as no surprise that time and work life balance always features highly in the topic of conversation. Marking can be a beast, soaking up hour upon hour and if you’re not careful, one that will catch up with you if you take your finger off the pulse. My opinion is that working smart, and not necessarily hard with your marking will go some way to managing your workload.

So with this in mind, what can we do to ensure that marking remains a high-profile element of the teaching and learning backbone? Firstly, we don’t make excuses for not doing it, instead we work together in an open, supportive forum to develop time-saving and effective strategies which will hopefully reinvigorate that love of marking. Here are a couple of quick snaps I’ve taken to try to capture effective teacher feedback where I feel it strikes the balanced ratio of teacher:student workload. What becomes obvious is that the myth that every piece of work needs to be marked, has been dispelled; yes work has been acknowledged but not necessarily in receipt of feedback which is a token gesture. The reason? because it wasn’t relevant for this particular piece of work, and I think this is the fundamental error that some teachers make – remember it’s okay to simply tick certain pieces of work where feedback isn’t appropriate, don’t make up feedback for the sake of it!

Here is evidence of our staff recommendations in action; teacher marking is in green and student response in purple. Consider when detailed feedback is needed, and ask yourself; does it always have to be you that does it?

In summary:

In an educational landscape where teachers workloads are ever-expanding, we mustn’t lose sight of what’s really important in our role, ensuring all students make progress and marking is a crucial aspect in this process. I think that opening up a creative whole school dialogue, in a non-judgemental and supportive culture is essential in ensuring that marking doesn’t become the elephant in the room. And don’t forget, peer and self-assessment are every bit as important as ‘traditional’ marking.

I’d also like to thank Ross McGill (aka @teachertoolkit) for his relentless and quite profound blogging on this topic, offering such practical resources such as this, the ‘5 Minute Marking Plan’ – helping claw back valuable time with our ever-increasing workloads.

Recommended Reads

1. Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning by John Hattie

In November 2008, John Hattie’s ground-breaking book Visible Learning synthesised the results of more than fifteen years research involving millions of students and represented the biggest ever collection of evidence-based research into what actually works in schools to improve learning.

Visible Learning for Teachers takes the next step and brings those ground breaking concepts to a completely new audience. Written for students, pre-service and in-service teachers, it explains how to apply the principles of Visible Learning to any classroom anywhere in the world. The author offers concise and user-friendly summaries of the most successful interventions and offers practical step-by-step guidance to the successful implementation of visible learning and visible teaching in the classroom.This book:

links the biggest ever research project on teaching strategies to practical classroom implementation

champions both teacher and student perspectives and contains step by step guidance including lesson preparation, interpreting learning and feedback during the lesson and post lesson follow up

See. Touch. Learn. You can build custom picture card lessons and automatically track students responses. Includes a starter set of stunning, high-quality images and 60 exercises.

EarthViewer. What did Earth look like 250 million years ago? Or 1 billion years ago? Or 4.5 billion years ago? EarthViewer is an interactive tool for tablet computers that allows you to explore the science of Earth’s deep history.

The Phrase Verbs machine. Here you can find animated illustrations of 100 phrasal verbs set in the circus world of ‘Phraso’ and his friends. Frequently, phrasal verbs can have more than one meaning. You can find an example sentences in English and the translation into five different languages. Also included are other meanings when they are useful or necessary to fully understand the phrasal verb.

Flipboard. Flipboard is your personal magazine, filled with the things you care about. You can curate the content to and catch up on the news, discover amazing things from around the world and connect to the people globally.

Orbit Architect. Orbit Architect allows you to interactively design and explore satellite orbital geometry through the multi-touch interface of the iPad. You can manipulate a satellite orbit using pinch and rotate multi-touch gestures, see the effects on the orbit and its ground track in real-time, and animate the results. As you change the orbit, dynamic diagrams will illuminate the meaning of each orbital parameter. Finally, the results can then be emailed to yourself or to a friend. Great for Science lessons!

Solve the Outbreak. Fantastic for global awareness learning. Students get clues, analyse data, solve the case, and save lives! In this fun app they are the Disease Detective. Do they quarantine the village? Talk to people who are sick? Ask for more lab results? The better their answers, the higher your score – and the more quickly they’ll save lives. Students start out as a trainee and can earn badges by solving cases, with the goal of earning the top rank: Disease Detective.

Hubble Space Telescope Discoveries. Students can soar through the universe with the Hubble Space Telescope, exploring discoveries from dark energy to colliding galaxies. This highly interactive eBook features video, image galleries and more to reveal the record of scientific breakthroughs behind Hubble’s stunning images of the cosmos.

Comics in the classroom. This is an interesting approach to teaching history to children through digital comics, with topics including Pearl Harbour, Florence Nightingale and Jack the Ripper. Children fill in the speech bubbles to prove their understanding of the subjects. Three comics are included, with additional ones available as 69p in-app purchases.

Hakitzu: Code of the Warrior. This entirely-free app wants to teach students to code using the JavaScript language. It’s presented as a game where they build robot warriors and use their coding skills to control them in battles against friends, or in the single-player mode while honing their abilities.

Bump. Lets students and teachers exchange information, files and videos by touching two devices together. Great for collaborative learning both within and outside the classroom.

Good Practice at Upton:

We have been designated with Apple Regional Training Centre status and we are now CHESTER RTC

What is an Apple Regional Training Centre (RTC)?

The Regional Training Centre programme is to provide teachers with training, expertise and access to best practice to support their use of Apple technology in the classroom. The programme brings together a wide community of experienced educators and experts who provide free and easy access to Apple’s creative learning technologies.

Every RTC has unique skills, a different curriculum or subject focus but all share the same objectives:

To provide a focus on pedagogy, for sharing best practice and gaining skills

To introduce planned, effective, digital solutions to schools using Mac and iPad

To train teachers to use Apple’s tools and help enable active and transformative teaching within the classroom.

To support, enhance and transform teaching and learning outcomes

The RTC Programme is a community programme and as such the ethos is about sharing learning experiences and knowledge between peers. The RTCs in the UK are learning-hubs within local regions, promoting collaboration and the sharing of resources and practices.
Having achieved RTC status in 2015 we are honored and privileged to share our success story and knowledge with our educational colleagues.
All the Apple technology courses we offer at Upton-by-Chester are freeto attend for any of our educational colleagues. The RTC program allows us to share with others the successful iPad implementations we have undertaken. We are excited and proud with what we have so far achieved with Apple Technologies in the classroom and welcome all those, at whatever stage along their own journey to come and see how we do things.

Our first training event: Literacy and the iPad – 27th January 2015

Opposite, Primary staff exploring the use of QR codes to enhance literacy skills.

This session explored how the iPad can aide and work alongside traditional teaching methods to deliver literacy to all Key Stages. It was well attended with over 30 delegates.

Course Schedule

All courses begin at 4pm, with coffee and registration from 3:30pm.We have WiFi access for those bringing their own iPad or for those who don’t we are happy to provide one for session.

Numeracy and the iPad – 26th February 2015

Science and the iPad – 24th March 2015

Programming and the iPad – 29th April 2015

The iPad in SEN – 12th May 2015

The iPad in MFL and EAL – 23rd June 2015

Creativity and the iPad – 14th July 2015

RTC Official Launch – TBC

We are in the final stages of organizing our RTC launch event which will be run in conjunction with Apple and JTRS. The event will give attendees a chance to understand the RTC programme and what it offers, hear what Apple have planned for the future. The event will also feature breakout sessions for our educational colleagues to understand more the benefits of Apple Technology in the classroom.

Skype in the classroom: Upton students have world at their fingertips

Learning geography simply from maps and atlases could be outdated for school students. Upton-by-Chester High school students closed their books and took to Skype to learn about and identify a specific place in Sri Lanka.

Students on both sides of the world were able to ask questions of each other to identify their country, city and school.

Mrs Mitchell, Geography Teacher, said the Skype session was one in a series of lessons which aimed to help students learn about the world by expanding their learning opportunities beyond the traditional confines. “Technology has allowed students to practice skills such as mapping, using sources i.e. atlases and Google maps and identify what information they need to guide their search for a school,” she said.

The ‘Skype in the Classroom’ project is giving students the opportunity to connect with students in classrooms around the world. It is a fantastic cultural exchange from the convenience of the classroom and an amazing enriching development for Geography.

Brain food

Geography QR code display: very interactive

WWW and EBI Bookmarks

As title states, adapt some lines for other subjects this is intended for use in Maths: click on the link for them in PowerPoint.Peer-Assessment-Bookmark (1)

‘I helped’ stickers in use in maths:

Article of the week

After 3 weeks of working on it here and there since the beginning of term, the Interactive Plenary Board is finally complete.

I’m really pleased with the results plus the kids are enjoying it so far.

It built up slowly, going from this…

to this…

I now have peer assessment guidance and have identified what WWW and EBI stands for as no matter how many times we do it somebody ALWAYS has to ask what it means. I’ve also printed off smaller versions of the tickets with WWW and EBI guidance on the back to support learners in writing appropriate feedback.

So far I’ve only really been able to use it with year 8 since year 7 are currently working on their Dangerous World project; they’ve been completing Exit Tickets each lesson to demonstrate their understanding so far.

Year 8 however are engaging with the activities and particularly like the social media based ‘Assess’ activities. Not sure if that is a good or bad thing however!

Since I only see my classes twice a week so far reminding them of the new procedures when they finish the main part of the lesson has been important. Encouraging them to choose a suitable task for the time left e.g if they’ve 10 minutes to go they should choose an ‘Extend’ task; whereas if they have 5 minutes they should pick an ‘Assess’ task or roll a plenary to decide on the plenary task. The ‘Reflect’ tasks I feel need more direction, so I’ll be the one to decide when they do these, once they have practised them a number of times they should hopefully be able to recognise how long they need and choose accordingly.

Under the roll a plenary board, there is a folder with additional activities such as key word and definition match up games and top trumps. These are for pupils to practice what they are learning, most of which have been created by the kids as part of their homework and sometimes classwork.

You can find out more about where some of the resources came from here and here.

Change the Light Bulbs’ offers tips and hints on how to be the best teacher you can be, and is written by some of the most respected leaders in education today. It covers primary, secondary and post 16 phases, in addition to cross curricular sections on leadership, ICT, inclusion, creativity, SEN and tutoring. It also presents the practical advice of those who have been there and done it and who now want to share their collective wisdom with you. The aim of which is to make education better, not just in your classroom but for everyone.

Useful links/resources/articles/apps

1) Geoguessr – a website where you can be transported to anywhere in the world that Google has mapped. Students can then explore and guess where they are.

2) Pictureteller – a great way to create photo slideshows. You can add effects and audio to create videos that you can embed, link to or download.

4) Hopscotch – The ipad version of scratch. A great app for doing basic programming on your iPad (Martin claimed it was even better than scratch!)

5) Streatview Stereographic – Create maps of anywhere that Google has mapped using street view and display as a mini world. Great for geography activities whether that’s the local area or furtherafield.

Good Practice at Upton :

A positive response from Upton Parents on iPads for learning December 2014

My child feels more motivated to work, with their iPad than without it:

Year 7 Parents: 89% Strongly agree/agree

Year 8 Parents: 92% Strongly agree/agree

What the parents said: He loves it. It really taps into what kids are into and so encourages him to want to learn more. It’s easier to research topics, and present in a more interesting way. She is able to research and find out things for herself at home. If I don’t know the answer we can find it together. (Work by Jemma Year 7)

The iPad is helping my child to improve the quality of their work.

Year 7 Parents: 87% Strongly agree/agree

Year 8 Parents: 89% Strongly agree/agree

What the parents said: He can add more detail, spell check his work, use the online dictionary, thesaurus and include pictures. She has a world of knowledge at her finger tips so she is able to put a lot of detail into her work – an extension of what she learnt in school. (Work by Jessica Year 8)

My child is making better progress with the iPad than without it.

Year 7 Parents: 83% Strongly agree/agree

Year 8 Parents: 88% Strongly agree/agree

What the parents said: He is more motivated so he is working harder and so making greater progress. Probably because it is more convenient than using different books and of course technology is a major part of life today.The speed of what she is learning has increased. Teachers explain to her how to improve on Showbie and so she can improve her work before the next lesson. (Work by Dan Year 7)

I think that my child’s achievement has improved since they received their iPad.

Year 7 Parents: 82% Strongly agree/agree

Year 8 Parents: 86% Strongly agree/agree

What the parents said: His grades have improved because he is more motivated. She is able to work on her own and so has improved at a faster rate. Rosie is improving in most lesson because she using her ipad. My child is keen to undertake the challenge of using the new technology to work with.

I feel that my child is able to work more effectively with the iPad than without it.

Year 7 Parents: 86% Strongly agree/agree

Year 8 Parents: 89% Strongly agree/agree

What the parents said: He enjoys learning now. The world at her finger tips! I think my daughter loves working on her iPad. He can research independently. My child is more organised.

My child is able to work more with others with the iPad than without it.

Year 7 Parents: 88% Strongly agree/agree

Year 8 Parents: 92% Strongly agree/agree

What the parents said: He can share work using air drop. She can share ideas using iMessage and email. The little video’s they produce from team work are really good. He tells me that he shares his work with others in class. I have seen examples of his work in the ipad news letter too. He also showed me some apps that he uses with a partner.

I am happy for my child to use the iPad regularly in their learning.

Year 7 Parents: 97% Strongly agree/agree

Year 8 Parents: 95% Strongly agree/agree

What the parents said: It is why we chose Upton High. Helps with their learning alongside written work & books. I think it makes learning more exciting, accessible and appropriate for the time we live in. I am happy for iPad to be used along side traditional teaching rather than a replacement. (Work by Dan Year 7)

Brain food:

A study from the National Literacy Trust and Pearson, published last month, suggested that touchscreen computers were particularly useful in helping boys and poorer pupils to learn to read.

It showed children in poorer households were particularly likely to read on touchscreen computers rather than printed books.

Another study from Ofcom last year showed how tablets have spread quickly within families with children. About 70% of five to 15-year-olds had access to a tablet at home.

Exposure to technology – a timeline:

Article of the week:

15 Unique and Creative Ways to Use iPads in the Classroom by teachingwithipad.org (1 by me JKE!):

Here are some great new ideas to use your iPad in your classroom. The iPad, as we all know, is a great tool for education. We are hoping that you can use at least a few of these new and creative ideas.

Quizlet is a completely free resource that allows you to create flashcards for your students. Interactive games can also be done on the web. Project them for great review as a class! An optional Teacher account with extra features is available. Students can also practice individually at home for review for upcoming tests. You do not necessarily need the app, as it is a web-based service as well. Run it straight from your browser.

3. Use your iPad as a “game show” – style soundboard.

Play review games (with the aide of technology or without) and use special sound effects in your class using apps such as Game Show Sound Board.

4. Build Posters using great photography apps like Diptic, Pic Collage and Over.

Have lots of interesting photos to share? Stitch them together using these apps, print them off to display in your classroom! Your students can create poster projects containing multiple images displaying what they have learned. Students and teachers can then add text using the Over app.

5. Use your iPad as a music playlist manager.

Do you sing and/or listen to a lot of songs in class? You can choose to use iTunes to create playlists but did you know that you can easily create playlists in YouTube as well? Find essentially any song you wish on YouTube and play it on your iPad! Better yet, use apps such as Musi to stream your music if you have a strong wifi signal, orInstatube to save your music for offline viewing/listening.

Recreate your favorite Sci-Fi movies or your own mini blockbuster with the aid of a green sheet and this innovative app. Film your scene in front of a green screen, then layer your background on top if it to create an awesome special effect! Export your video to the Camera Roll and it is ready to be edited further or combined with more clips in iMovie. You might also want to take a look at the Action Movie FX app.

8. Record Podcasts with USB Mics.

The iPad is a great multimedia device, but the microphone is not of the highest quality for recording professional sounding audio in video or for podcasts. However, with the help of Apple’s Camera Connection Kits, you can connect good quality USB mics and other peripherals to use with your iPad.

9. Create multimedia eBooks with Book Creator.

One of the best uses for the iPad in education is digital storytelling apps, and they don’t come much better than Book Creator for iPad. Over 3 million multimedia eBooks have been created with just this app! You can add text, images, video, audio and more. Choose from over 50 fonts, draw your own illustrations, and send your finished product to iBooks, Dropbox, or share by email. Try it out for free!

10. Let the iPad choose!

Ever have trouble deciding who gets to answer in class? I still see teachers with a can of 25 names on Popsicle sticks with their students names on them. The iPad can choose names randomly.

Also, Do you have difficulty choosing people for group projects? There are various apps that can do this for you. Check out Pick Me! ($1.99), which can keep a standing record of correct and incorrect responses that the students give. The app is able to choose, based on their individual percentages of correct answers, leveled, random and balanced groups.

We talk a lot about differentiated instruction, but not enough about differentiated assessment. Using Explain Everything ($2.99), students can show you (and tell you!) what they know in a way that works for them. Explain Everything is a screencasting app that allows students to “annotate, animate, narrate, import and export almost anything to and from almost anywhere.” Whether students demonstrate their understanding of a math concept, summarizing skills, or phonemes, Explain Everything allows you to capture students’ thoughts while viewing their work.

12. Share your students’ learning experiences with families and other schools using Instagram.

Looking for an easy way to share your classroom with families and other educators? JoinInstagram (for free)! Using the iPad’s camera, you can capture photos and videos to quickly post to Instagram, where families and other educators can celebrate your students’ learning right along with you.

Augmented reality can change the way your students see the world by offering additional digital information to real objects that can only be seen via apps like Layar (free) orAurasma (free). Post a blank map or timeline, where teachers and students can add different types of multimedia content that can be viewed depending on age, ability, and/or curriculum.

14. Collaborate with other classrooms using video conferencing and Subtext.

We should never let our students think that their classroom is just the four walls around them. It is essential that students know that the world is their classroom, and the iPad is a great way for students to connect and collaborate with students anywhere in the world. Whether students video conference with FaceTime or Skype (both free) to discuss a book in they read together in Subtext (a social reading app), or to do a Mystery Skype, the iPad opens doors to collaborative learning experiences for students of all ages.

Recommended Reads

It′s easy to bring the incredible iPad experience to your classroom today! The iPad is a natural fit for education in the 21st century, and this straightforward, full–color guide shows you just how to deploy it effectively in your educational institution. From understanding how iPads can be used for different learning styles to managing iPad content and classroom use, finding the apps to complement your curriculum, creating interactive lessons, and beyond, author Sam Gliksman, a sought–after consultant on integrating technology in schools, answers all your questions. Helps teachers and administrators see how to use iPads effectively in different grades, classroom settings, and curriculum levels Explains iPad′s built–in media features and the importance of multimedia in modern education Explores iPad best practices, tools, and apps for a successful iPad program in your school Shows how the iPad can be used as a valuable tool for research, collaboration, communication, creativity, and discovery Provides tips and guidance on keeping information updated, managing content, and taking advantage of the iPad as a learning tool iPad in Education For Dummies is your guide to using the world’s most popular tablet to inspire and educate your students in a whole new way.

2) Top 10 UK education Blogs:

The full list: (last Updated 15/01/2014) – click here to visit the page.

Useful links/videos/resources

2) Used by thousands of teachers worldwide, Teacher Guide to iPad includes over 500 ideas for lesson activities using iPad across all age groups. 200 Video tutorials walk through apps, ideas and skills in small, manageable sections. Plus pupil work examples, labelled guides and links to resources that have all been tried and tested in school. Click on the link below.

3) ipadteachers.org is a website where teachers and education professionals can share ideas about making the most of the use of iPads in the classroom. Hosted by Hove Park School in Brighton, England, our site aims to share the experiences of our teachers as well as providing links to interesting blogs and articles from around the world. We also welcome direct contributions from any teachers who are excited about the positive impact iPads can make to learning.

Good Practice at Upton :

Below is a photo of Hannah and Lauren, Year 8, receiving their certificated from Mrs Dixon Headteacher. They took part in delivering a work shop on Feedback using iPads for learning at the SSAT national conference. Well done!

In Science Year 7 have been learning about specialised cells and have produced some fantastic models and cakes for a homework task. The photographs are from Mrs Bradbury, Head of Science.

Variety: making videos or websites; teaching part of a lesson; making a model or a composition; acting out a role-play; experts and envoys; peer assessment; debates and discussions; designing your own experiment; pre-learning material from online video tutorials; using ‘ExplainEverything’ to produce a short presentation for the class.

Tastes: Having the option to respond in a variety of forms; or to choose the topic; or to work at a pace that suits; to create learning independently; to work collaboratively with a group of my choice; to learn through extended open-ended projects with opportunities for doing some things in depth over time.

Pitch It Up. Aim High. Expect Excellence. Demand It.

It’s not one strategy…it’s more a frame of mind; the cumulative effect of the many micro-strategies that result in higher levels of engagement, longer periods of concentration, wider use of vocabulary, better explanations, deeper learning and stronger performances. Click on the link below and watch the video.

Article of the week:

The goal of summative assessment is most often to measure student learning at the end of a topic or unit by comparing it against some ‘standard’ – i.e. a grade or level. Summative assessments – tests, exams, final projects etc. – are often high stakes and ‘one-off’, and in many students this can lead to a ‘fixed mindset‘ approach to them.

On the other hand, the goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning by providing ongoing feedback that can be used by students to improve their learning. This process should help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need work, and in the process help teachers identify where extra support/teaching is needed.

What if we could do both at once? Do we have to choose? Isn’t that what the growth mindset is all about?

Possibilities for using a mock exam formatively:

Revisit questions answered incorrectly – students go back and improve, then remark!

Break questions down and attempt as a rally

Get students to mark / coach each other

Agree as a class what is required for the marks in advance

Use previous papers to help recognise the type of question and the style of answer

Identify common misconceptions to address with students – build this in to D.I.R.T

Reflect on one’s own teaching of problem areas to identify gaps in teaching /learning

Co-construct a WAGOLL by taking the best student answers from each question – groups have ownership of a ‘perfect’ model paper

Incorporate quick strategies like a ‘5 minute steal’ or use question tokens during the exam – students can ask you questions but it will cost them a token!

If you’re going to set a mock exam, you might as well make it work for you. I strongly recommend getting into a habit wherever possible of marking mocks quickly enough so that students can act on your feedback in the next lesson, therefore planning your next lesson for you. If this isn’t practical, why not get them to mark their own/each others in class? Some teachers would recoil in horror at the idea (“what if they cheat?”) So what! Let them ‘cheat’ if it helps them learn! After all, we can never go back in time, all we want our students to do is to do better next time.

How do we ensure that students do better next time? Give them the time and opportunity to improve – D.I.R.T or ‘MAD time’ next lesson. Here’s an example of the guidance given to Engineering students the lesson after their recent mock exam:

They then had a good chunk of the next lesson to ensure they went back and improved their score by at least ten marks. Simple, no bother formative assessment leading to progress for the students.

Recommended Reads

1) The Secret of Literacy: Making the implicit, explicit by David Didau

Literacy? That’s someone else’s job, isn’t it? This is a book for all teachers on how to make explicit to students those things we can do implicitly. In the Teachers’ Standards it states that all teachers must demonstrate an understanding of, and take responsibility for, promoting high standards of literacy, articulacy, and the correct use of standard English, whatever the teacher’s specialist subject. In The Secret of Literacy, David Didau inspires teachers to embrace the challenge of improving students’ life chances through improving their literacy. Topics include: Why is literacy important?, Oracy improving classroom talk, How should we teach reading? How to get students to value writing, How written feedback and marking can support literacy.

2) Mindsets in the Classroom: Building a Culture of Success and Student Achievement in Schools by Mary Cay Ricci

When students believe that dedication and hard work can change their performance in school, they grow to become resilient, successful students. Inspired by the popular mindset idea that hard work and effort can lead to success, Mindsets in the Classroom provides educators with ideas for ways to build a growth mindset school culture, wherein students are challenged to change their thinking about their abilities and potential. The book includes a planning template, step-by-step description of a growth mindset culture, and “look-fors” for adopting a differentiated, responsive instruction model teachers can use immediately in their classrooms.

Useful links/videos/resources

1) Carol Dweck researches “growth mindset” — the idea that we can grow our brain’s capacity to learn and to solve problems. In this talk, she describes two ways to think about a problem that’s slightly too hard for you to solve. Are you not smart enough to solve it … or have you just not solved it yet? A great introduction to this influential field.

3) Leaving a high-flying job in consulting, Angela Lee Duckworth took a job teaching math to seventh graders in a New York public school. She quickly realized that IQ wasn’t the only thing separating the successful students from those who struggled. Here, she explains her theory of “grit” as a predictor of success.